Josette Simon Joins Mel Giedroyc in UK Premiere of LUCE at Southwark Playhouse

Josette Simon joins the previously announced Mel Giedroyc to lead the cast of the UK première of JC Lee's play LUCE, which will run at London's Southwark Playhouse from 9 March to 2 April 2016, with a Press Night on Friday 11 March 2016. Final casting is to be announced.

LUCE is directed by the acclaimed theatre director Simon Dormandy, whose recent productions include the world première of his own stage adaptation of the iconic film The Hudsucker Proxy. It is also designed by Dick Bird, who won the 2015 UK Theatre Award for Best Design for The Hudsucker Proxy. Gripping, funny, fast-paced and profoundly disturbing, LUCE - which premièred at the Lincoln Center Theater in 2013 - marks the arrival in the UK of a startling new voice.

Amy's son is perfect: star athlete, academic highflyer and high school hero. So why are there lethal explosives in his locker?

LUCE is about the fear of homegrown terrorism. Set in an ordinary American town, but addressing anxieties that are growing throughout the Western world, it raises troubling questions about parenting, education and racism. Do we ever really know our children? Why must they be perfect? And where do the springs of violence lie?

Josette Simon plays Harriet. Josette was awarded an OBE for services to drama in 2000. Her extensive theatre credits include After the Fall at the National Theatre, for which she won Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards, and an Olivier Award Nomination for Best Actress. For the RSC, credits include Golden Girls (Plays and Players Award for Best Actress), Don Carlos, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Love's Labour's Lost, Antony & Cleopatra, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, and Peer Gynt. Other theatre credits include The Maids (Donmar Warehouse), The Lady from the Sea (Lyric Hammersmith), and The Vagina Monologues (Old Vic). Television credits include Death in Paradise, Spooks, Law and Order UK, Suspects, Merlin, New Tricks, Silent Witness, The Return, Minder, Skins, Whistleblowers, Lewis, Midsomer Murders, Agatha Christie: Poirot, Dalziel and Pascoe, and Henry IV - Parts I & II. Film credits include Red Lights (with Robert de Niro and Sigourney Weaver), A Child from the South, Cry Freedom, Milk and Honey (Paris Film Festival and Atlantic Film Festival Awards for Best Actress), Dardanelle, Bridge of Time and When Love Dies.

Mel Giedroyc plays Amy. Mel is an actress, comedian and presenter, best known for her comedy work with Sue Perkins. She has co-hosted television series such as Mel & Sue, Light Lunch, and The Great British Bake Off, and was seen on ITV's Christmas Day broadcast The Sound of Music Live!, a new television dramatisation of the world's most popular musical. Mel's other stage credits include New Boy (Trafalgar Studios) and Eurobeat (Novello).

Simon Dormandy directs. He recently adapted and co-directed The Hudsucker Proxy, a Complicite, Liverpool Everyman and Nuffield Theatre production based on the Coen Brothers' film. Simon's other recent credits include The Encounter (Complicite), Shangri-La (Finborough), Waiting for Godot and Eldorado (both Arcola Theatre). Simon has also taught and directed at leading London drama schools and at Eton College, where his pupils included Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston.

Dick Bird is an award-winning designer, whose last collaboration with Simon Dormandy, The Hudsucker Proxy, won Best Design at the 2015 UK Theatre Awards. Dick's other recent work includes Before the Dawn for Kate Bush at Hammersmith Apollo, Hamlet at the Comedie Francaise, La Donna del Lago at the Royal Opera House and the upcoming The Pearl Fishers at The Met.

JC Lee writes for theatre, film and television. LUCE received its world première in 2013 at the Lincoln Center Theater. He's received commissions and fellowships from the Old Globe, South Coast Repertory, Playwright's Realm, New Conservatory Theatre Center and the National New Play Network. JC is a graduate of The Juilliard School & Bloomsburg University. He was recently a writer & co-producer for Looking on HBO, where he previously wrote for Girls and is in development on his dark comedy Bad Kids with Peter Berg. He's currently writing the screen adaptation for the musical Pippin for the Weinstein Company and ABC's How To Get Away With Murder.

IF YOU GO:

LUCE

Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD

Dates: Previews 9 - 10 March; Performances 11 March - 2 April 2016

Times: Mon-Sat at 8.00pm, Tuesday & Saturday matinees at 3.30pm

Tickets: £20 / £16 concessions. Previews on 9 & 10 March, all tickets £12

Box office: 020 7407 0234 / Online booking: www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk (24 hours / no booking fees)

LUCE is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French Ltd.